15,549 research outputs found

    Building body identities - exploring the world of female bodybuilders

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    This thesis explores how female bodybuilders seek to develop and maintain a viable sense of self despite being stigmatized by the gendered foundations of what Erving Goffman (1983) refers to as the 'interaction order'; the unavoidable presentational context in which identities are forged during the course of social life. Placed in the context of an overview of the historical treatment of women's bodies, and a concern with the development of bodybuilding as a specific form of body modification, the research draws upon a unique two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, complemented by interviews with twenty-six female bodybuilders, all of whom live in the U.K. By mapping these extraordinary women's lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an 'empowering' radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the 'Janus-faced' nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances

    Development and evaluation of a treatment package for men with an intellectual disability who sexually offend

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    Sex offending in the general population has been a focus of interest for some time due to the damaging nature of the behaviour, and the need to reduce recidivism. Theoretical and clinical advances (Finke1hor, 1986; HM Prison Service, 1996; Marshall, Anderson, & Fernandez, 1999; Serran & Marshall, 2010) in treatment for sex offenders in the general population have been extended to men with an intellectual disability at risk of sexual offending (Lindsay, 2009). The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate the SOTSEC-ID version cftrus model. Participants are adult males from 15 different locations across England and Wales, with an intellectual disability or borderline cognitive functioning and who have committed sexual offences. A pilot study clarified assessments and procedures, and individual data over several years is presented. A qualitative study using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (JP A) illustrates the 'meaning making' of participants' treatment experience through six major themes. A reliability and validity study assesses the four main quantitative measures, QACSO, SAKA, SOSAS, and VESA, finding limited support for criterion validity for the SOSAS and SAKA, excellent inter-rater reli"ability for all four main measures, and good to excellent inter-rater reliability on all but the SAKA Finally, a quantitative study, in collaboration with the wider SOTSEC-ID group, uses a repeated measures design to compare the QACSO, SOSAS and SAKA across pre-group, post-group and follow. up. Significant main effects and post-hoc comparisons were in the predicted direction for all measures. A range of information on demographic, clinical and criminogenic factors including offending during treatment or follow-up are also presented. A recidivism rate of 12.3% over a year was calculated for the sample. The treatment model and collaborative framework is recommended for wider adoption

    Exploring the effects of spinal cord stimulation for freezing of gait in parkinsonian patients

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    Dopaminergic replacement therapies (e.g. levodopa) provide limited to no response for axial motor symptoms including gait dysfunction and freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Richardson’s syndrome progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP-RS) patients. Dopaminergic-resistant FOG may be a sensorimotor processing issue that does not involve basal ganglia (nigrostriatal) impairment. Recent studies suggest that spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has positive yet variable effects for dopaminergic-resistant gait and FOG in parkinsonian patients. Further studies investigating the mechanism of SCS, optimal stimulation parameters, and longevity of effects for alleviating FOG are warranted. The hypothesis of the research described in this thesis is that mid-thoracic, dorsal SCS effectively reduces FOG by modulating the sensory processing system in gait and may have a dopaminergic effect in individuals with FOG. The primary objective was to understand the relationship between FOG reduction, improvements in upper limb visual-motor performance, modulation of cortical activity and striatal dopaminergic innervation in 7 PD participants. FOG reduction was associated with changes in upper limb reaction time, speed and accuracy measured using robotic target reaching choice tasks. Modulation of resting-state, sensorimotor cortical activity, recorded using electroencephalography, was significantly associated with FOG reduction while participants were OFF-levodopa. Thus, SCS may alleviate FOG by modulating cortical activity associated with motor planning and sensory perception. Changes to striatal dopaminergic innervation, measured using a dopamine transporter marker, were associated with visual-motor performance improvements. Axial and appendicular motor features may be mediated by non-dopaminergic and dopaminergic pathways, respectively. The secondary objective was to demonstrate the short- and long-term effects of SCS for alleviating dopaminergic-resistant FOG and gait dysfunction in 5 PD and 3 PSP-RS participants without back/leg pain. SCS programming was individualized based on which setting best improved gait and/or FOG responses per participant using objective gait analysis. Significant improvements in stride velocity, step length and reduced FOG frequency were observed in all PD participants with up to 3-years of SCS. Similar gait and FOG improvements were observed in all PSP-RS participants up to 6-months. SCS is a promising therapeutic option for parkinsonian patients with FOG by possibly influencing cortical and subcortical structures involved in locomotion physiology

    Coverage measurements of NB-IoT technology

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    Abstract. The narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) is a cellular radio access technology that provides seamless connectivity to wireless IoT devices with low latency, low power consumption, and long-range coverage. For long-range coverage, NB-IoT offers a coverage enhancement (CE) mechanism that is achieved by repeating the transmission of signals. Good network coverage is essential to reduce the battery usage and power consumption of IoT devices, while poor network coverage increases the number of repetitions in transmission, which causes high power consumption of IoT devices. The primary objective of this work is to determine the network coverage of NB-IoT technology under the University of Oulu’s 5G test network (5GTN) base station. In this thesis work, measurement results on key performance indicators such as reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), and signal to noise plus interference (SINR) have been reported. The goal of the measurement is to find out the NB-IoT signal strength at different locations, which are served by the 5GTN cells configured with different parameters, e.g., Tx power levels, antenna tilt angles. The signal strength of NB-IoT technology has been measured at different places under the 5GTN base station in Oulu, Finland. Drive tests have been conducted to measure the signal strength of NB-IoT technology by using the Quectel BG96 module, Qualcomm kDC-5737 dongle and Keysight Nemo Outdoor software. The results have shown the values of RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, and SINR at different locations within several kilometres of the 5GTN base stations. These values indicate the performance of the network and are used to assess the performance of network services to the end-users. In this work, the overall performance of the network has been checked to verify if network performance meets good signal levels and good network coverage. Relevant details of the NB-IoT technology, the theory behind the signal coverage and comparisons with the measurement results have also been discussed to check the relevance of the measurement results

    Innovation systems’ response to changes in the institutional impulse: Analysis of the evolution of the European energy innovation system from FP7 to H2020

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    This study addresses how the institutional impulse developed by the European Union influenced the evolution of the European energy innovation system. Considering the contributing role of innovation systems in the development of new knowledge and technology, it can be stated that the institutional impulse achieved by the European Union through the research framework programmes creates a network of relations between entities and projects. This enables the exchange of information and expertise, which is considered a key element for innovation development. Previous studies have attempted to determine whether institutional impulse is an essential element in understanding the efficiency of innovation systems and their related research policies. However, their investigations have yielded inconclusive results. Using the CORDIS database of the European Commission, this study aims to fill this gap by assessing the European energy innovation system for two periods (2007–2013 and 2014–2020) through two of its research funding programmes—FP7 and H2020—thereby contributing to the literature in the innovation systems field. Social network analysis has been conducted to examine how changes in the institutional impulse, reflected in the new objectives in the research funding programmes, are associated with changes in the structural and topological properties of the innovation systems’ underlying networks. The first contribution indicates that the innovation system responds to changes in the goals of funding programmes, as the taxonomy, topology, and structural properties of their underlying networks underwent modifications due to the newly proposed objectives. The second contribution shows that network properties (cohesion and centrality metrics) can explain the efficiency and effectiveness of innovation systems, drawing useful conclusions for policymakers and individual entities. This last contribution also has important policymaking implications, as it provides the basis for understanding how innovation policy goals can be achieved by changing the institutional impulse to direct the innovation system towards these objectives

    Strung pieces: on the aesthetics of television fiction series

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    As layered and long works, television fiction series have aesthetic properties that are built over time, bit by bit. This thesis develops a group of concepts that enable the study of these properties, It argues that a series is made of strung pieces, a system of related elements. The text begins by considering this sequential form within the fields of film and television. This opening chapter defines the object and methodology of research, arguing for a non-essentialist distinction between cinema and television and against the adequacy of textual and contextual analyses as approaches to the aesthetics of these shows. It proposes instead that these programmes should be described as televisual works that can be scrutinised through aesthetic analysis. The next chapters propose a sequence of interrelated concepts. The second chapter contends that series are composed of building blocks that can be either units into which series are divided or motifs that unify series and are dispersed across their pans. These blocks are patterned according to four kinds of relations or principles of composition. Repetition and variation are treated in tandem in the third chapter because of their close connection, given that variation emerges from established repetition. Exception and progression are also discussed together in the fourth chapter since they both require a long view of these serial works. The former, in order to be recognised as a deviation from the patterns of repetition and variation. The latter, In order to be understood in Its many dimensions as the series advances. Each of these concepts is further detailed with additional distinctions between types of units, motifs, repetitions, variations, and exceptions, using illustrative examples from numerous shows. In contrast, the section on progression uses a single series as case study, Carnivàle (2003-05), because this is the overarching principle that encompasses all the others. The conclusion considers the findings of the research and suggests avenues for their application

    Studies of strategic performance management for classical organizations theory & practice

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    Nowadays, the activities of "Performance Management" have spread very broadly in actually every part of business and management. There are numerous practitioners and researchers from very different disciplines, who are involved in exploring the different contents of performance management. In this thesis, some relevant historic developments in performance management are first reviewed. This includes various theories and frameworks of performance management. Then several management science techniques are developed for assessing performance management, including new methods in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Soft System Methodology (SSM). A theoretical framework for performance management and its practical procedures (five phases) are developed for "classic" organizations using soft system thinking, and the relationship with the existing theories are explored. Eventually these results are applied in three case studies to verify our theoretical development. One of the main contributions of this work is to point out, and to systematically explore the basic idea that the effective forms and structures of performance management for an organization are likely to depend greatly on the organizational configuration, in order to coordinate well with other management activities in the organization, which has seemingly been neglected in the existing literature of performance management research in the sense that there exists little known research that associated particular forms of performance management with the explicit assumptions of organizational configuration. By applying SSM, this thesis logically derives some main functional blocks of performance management in 'classic' organizations and clarifies the relationships between performance management and other management activities. Furthermore, it develops some new tools and procedures, which can hierarchically decompose organizational strategies and produce a practical model of specific implementation steps for "classic" organizations. Our approach integrates popular types of performance management models. Last but not least, this thesis presents findings from three major cases, which are quite different organizations in terms of management styles, ownership, and operating environment, to illustrate the fliexbility of the developed theoretical framework

    Towards the development of care management in community care for elderly people in Korea

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    This study is concerned with the feasibility of several forms of care management in the development of community care for elderly people in Korea. Chapter one introduces the background of community care in Korea in the light of demographic, socio-economic, and political realities. This chapter reviews the changing Korean society as a barometer to understand the scope, size, and speed of social needs, especially community care for elderly people, over the last few decades. Chapter two explores various definitions, concepts, and theories of community, community care, and care management by building upon trends previously established in the research. This helps to identify the different models of care management and the pre-conditions necessary for the application of different models in Korea. Chapter three explores what factors have affected the development of community care, and what community dare has achieved for elderly people in the UK. Especially, care management in community care for elderly people in the UK is examined in detail. Chapter four details the findings of field research on community care for elderly people in Korea. This covers the needs of elderly people and their carers, and the social worker's tasks and available resources. The potential for the use of care management based on the findings of field research is assessed. Chapter five investigates whether the UK models of care management are suitable for Korean society, which interventions are useful for developing care management, and the strategies, and principles involved
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